Star Formation Research

Left: T Tauri star with a hot spot surrounded by an
accretion disk with an inner hole, viewed at an inclination of 60
degrees (90 degrees is edge-on). This is a Monte Carlo radiation
transfer calculation showing the light emitted and scattered by this
source. You'd have to have a really really
big telescope in space to see such a close-up view as this.

We
have several projects in this field. Most involve using radiation
transfer
codes to connect theory and observation. For example, a theoretical
model will
calculate the expected density structure of an
collapsing cloud that is forming a star in the middle. We will
calculate how
radiation propagates through this envelope and what you would see from
the
earth and compare this to observations. We'll update soon with more
recent
results.